


Doki Doki Literature Cafe

by pigeonking



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-06 23:39:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15896493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pigeonking/pseuds/pigeonking
Summary: I recently watched Markiplier playing this game on youtube and fell in love with the character of Natsuki, which inspired me to create a little love story just for her.It's set in the Doki Doki universe, but without all the weird meta stuff that happens later... this is just a sweet romance, nothing weird, that's not the story I want to tell... I hope you enjoy it...





	1. Opening Day

It was the big opening day for Natsuki’s _Doki Doki Literature Café_ and she had never been more nervous in all her life. She had been inspired to open her café when she had still been in high school and a member of her friend, Monika’s after school literature club. Natsuki had enjoyed reading and writing with her friends whilst in the club and would often bake for them; the idea of taking all of these elements that she loved and turning them into a way to make a living had been her dream ever since and now, almost two years later, after a lot of hard work trying to get the money together, she was finally doing it.

With a cocktail of nervous, excited energy bubbling away in the pit of her stomach, Natsuki took her keys and unlocked the doors to her café to admit the waiting customers outside for the very first time ever.

“Please don’t let this fail.” She whispered a silent prayer to herself as the customers filed in. “Please don’t let my daddy be right.”

With a deep breath Natsuki swallowed down all of her apprehensions and fears and returned to her position behind the counter. It was time to go to work.

The premise behind her _Doki Doki Literature Café_ was simple; it combined the idea of a small café/bakery with a miniature library. People could come in and order a cake and a coffee, then sit down and read a book off the bookshelves that lined the walls. Books could be taken away on an honour service, meaning that they would be trusted to bring it back once they’d finished with it and of course they were also welcome to bring their own books too. They could also donate books that they no longer wanted which would then be added to the shelves. That was how Natsuki had worked it all out in her head; now she was finally going to see it in action.

When Natsuki had opened the doors there had been around twelve people waiting outside, eager to try out her quaint new café. They all lined up at her counter and she served them all in turn with whatever beverage they desired, some choosing just to have the drink on its own while others also ordered a cake or a pastry to accompany it… all of which had been home baked by Natsuki the night before.

Once the customers had their order they would take it to sit at one of the little coffee tables scattered around the café in front of comfortable leather sofas or armchairs if they preferred to sit alone. It wasn’t long before they were all drawn by the lure of literature that surrounded them and they began to peruse the shelves for something to read as they sat and enjoyed their drinks and cakes.

Natsuki couldn’t resist doing a little excited dance of joy as she watched them doing exactly what she had envisaged all those years ago when she had first come up with her literature café. This was going to work.

More people came in throughout the day, the busiest time, of course, being lunchtime between the hours of 12 and 2pm. Though she was on her own, Natsuki found herself thriving under the pressure and prided herself in getting every single order correct and out on time. Even so, once she was making enough money off of the place, it wouldn’t hurt to hire someone to help out a little.

When closing time finally came it was a tired, but happy Natsuki that went home to her apartment at the end of the day. If every day could be like this one then the _Doki Doki Literature Café_ would indeed be a success.


	2. First Encounter

Three months later and business at the _Doki Doki Literature Café_ was booming. Natsuki could now afford to hire help and she now shared her duties with an enthusiastic young girl named Fumiko.

The café now had the means to bake onsite so that customers could now enjoy freshly baked goods and handmade sandwiches with their coffee or tea.

So well-known was the café now, through word of mouth that they got many tourists in, though Natsuki suspected that number would decline once the holiday season was over. There were local regulars too. People who lived or worked in the area who loved the place and came in on a daily or weekly basis.

 _He_ was one of the weekly ones. There was a guy, around Natsuki’s age, maybe a little older, who came in once a week. He always came on a Wednesday, always ordered the same black coffee with two sugars with a chocolate buttercream cupcake, and he always sat in the same corner armchair reading manga.

When Natsuki had noticed that he liked manga, all of the blood had suddenly rushed to her head and she had come over all faint and needed to sit down, leaving Fumiko to work on her own for a few minutes while she recovered.

Natsuki always felt abnormally flustered every Wednesday when he came in, to the point where she had insisted that Fumiko be the one to take his order whenever he did so.

Today, however, was another Wednesday and Fumiko had called in sick, leaving Natsuki to fend for herself. Which was fine. Natsuki could handle it no problem at all.

But then _he_ came in.

She didn’t notice him until she had finished serving Mr Teshima, the old man who lived in one of the apartments across the street, he came in practically every day.

Mr Teshima bowed and thanked Natsuki before shuffling off to take his favourite seat. Natsuki returned the bow respectfully and watched him leave. When she turned back to engage the next customer she couldn’t help herself… as soon as she saw _him_ she let out a startled yelp.

“Is everything alright?” Mr Wednesday (as she had been calling him in her head) asked with concern.

Natsuki made an almost visible effort to compose herself, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath and wished there was some way that she could will the blush out of her cheeks.

“Of course, I’m alright!” she managed to say, a little more harshly than she wanted. “It’s not like you startled me or anything.”

“That’s good to know.” Mr Wednesday replied with a barely supressed smile of amusement.

“Did I say something funny?” Natsuki blustered.

“No not at all.” Mr Wednesday made a conscious effort not to smile.

Before he could say anything else Natsuki turned away and started to prepare his order: black coffee with two sugars and her best chocolate buttercream cupcake. Once she had finished preparing them she turned back to him and handed them over.

“Wow! I didn’t even have to tell you what I wanted.” Mr Wednesday noted with an impressed smile. “That’s particularly impressive considering that this is the first time that you have ever served me. Normally it’s your cute assistant who serves me, but I guess she’s not in today?”

Natsuki felt the blood in her cheeks burn so hard that her face began to itch.

“I will not have customers talk about my staff in such a fashion!” she fumed. “She is not an object for you to… to… objectify with your labels. And just because I pay attention and remember my customers’ orders doesn’t mean I’m paying any special attention to _you_ or anything. I would remember anybody’s order here if they’re a regular!”

“Oh, really?” Mr Wednesday replied with a slight smirk. He stood to the side a little and let the person behind him step forward. “Okay then, what does this young lady like to order? I know I’ve seen her in here many times before.”

Natsuki looked at the young, bookish, but cute college age girl that now stood before her and panicked. She was indeed a regular, but Natsuki could not, for the life of her, remember anything about what she liked to order.

“I’m sure you only remember her because she’s ‘cute’ too?” Natsuki accused lamely.

The girl felt a little embarrassed to be a pawn in this little game between Mr Wednesday and Natsuki and decided to move things along to get it over and done with.

“I like a tall mocha with whipped cream and a slice of shortbread biscuit, please.”

“I knew that!” Natsuki insisted. “I was just about to say that!”

“Sure you were.” Mr Wednesday chuckled and left to go and sit in his armchair.

Natsuki watched him leave through narrowed eyes before turning around to prepare the girl’s order.

“I’ll get you next time, Mr Wednesday!” she muttered as she went.


	3. Revenge is a Coffee Best Served Cold

Next time was, of course, the following Wednesday. By that time Fumiko had long recovered from her sickness and returned to work. When Mr Wednesday came in, Fumiko flashed her boss a knowing smile and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

“It’s that guy you like, Natsuki.” She said, “Don’t worry, I’ll serve him for you, like I always do.”

“I do not like him!” Natsuki protested harshly, her own voice only a few octaves above whispering, “And _I_ will be serving him this time, thank you!”

Fumiko’s eyes widened at her boss’s little outburst, but her smile did not waver… despite Natsuki’s words, the blush in her cheeks and her overall demeanour did much to suggest the opposite of what she said.

Soon enough it was Mr Wednesday’s turn to be served and Natsuki prepared to take his order.

This time she let him tell her what he wanted, even though she already knew, and when he smiled and tried to engage her in conversation she just cut her eyes at him coldly and turned away to fetch his order.

As soon as her back was turned to him she smiled mischievously and crossed to the coffee machine.

Natsuki set about preparing his coffee. She set a decoy cup under the dispenser and as that was being filled she surreptitiously prepared another cup, but with ice cold water.

Natsuki threw her most charming and inoffensive smile in his direction.

“Why don’t you go and take your usual seat, _sir_.” She suggested. “I’ll bring your order for you.”

“Why thank you. Much appreciated!” Mr Wednesday beamed back at her and left to do just that.

Natsuki finished preparing the iced black coffee and set it onto a tray alongside one of her finest cupcakes, then with a childish giggle she set off to deliver them to where Mr Wednesday sat, already immersed within his manga book.

“Here you go, sir.” She said sweetly as she approached him. “One black coffee and a chocolate buttercream cupcake, just as you ordered.”

Mr Wednesday looked up from his book with a smile.

“Thank you, Miss…?”

As Natsuki bent over to set down the tray she feinted a stumble and hurled its contents directly into Mr Wednesday’s lap with an exaggerated “Woops!!!”

Ice cold black coffee splashed all over his jeans and onto the open pages of the manga book he’d been reading.

“What the fuck?” Mr Wednesday leapt up out of his seat and immediately started fanning his book in an effort to dry it. He didn’t seem concerned about his jeans at all.

“I’m so sorry, sir!” Natsuki exclaimed behind a barely concealed grin, “Such a terrible accident!”

“That was no accident…” Mr Wednesday snapped angrily, “That coffee was stone cold… You planned this!”

Natsuki blanched, she had made sure the coffee was cold as she hadn’t wanted to dowse Mr Wednesday in scalding hot liquid, but she hadn’t considered that this would also make her ‘accident’ far too obviously deliberate.

For a moment she stammered at her own stupidity and lack of foresight.

“Well, it serves you right for being so arrogant the last time you were here!” she managed to say, only painfully too aware that every eye in the café was now turned in their direction.

Mr Wednesday thrust his book under her nose.

“Look at this!” he demanded furiously, “Do you have any idea how important this book was to me? You’ve ruined it!”

Natsuki looked down at the book that was being waved angrily in front of her face.

It was an old and rare volume of the manga series _Cowboy Bebop_. Not one of Natsuki’s favourites, but she doubted that would matter to Mr Wednesday.

“Perhaps I can buy you a replacement?” she stammered.

“A replacement, huh? Can you replace this?” he flicked to the front of the book and showed her a message in biro written on the opening page now badly stained with dark coffee. It was from his mother. “My mother bought me this when I was thirteen, it was the last thing she gave me before… before she…” he couldn’t quite bring himself to finish, so instead he flung the book into Natsuki’s arms and he stormed out of the café before his tears could betray him.

Natsuki watched him leave, hugging the coffee stained book to her chest.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered as she felt her own heart break inside.


	4. Heartbreak

For the next few days Natsuki was on auto-pilot. She went about her duties at the café with a fixed smile for the customers that she did not feel in her heart. How could she have messed things up so badly?

The truth was that she _did_ like Mr Wednesday, but every time she liked a guy she always put up her defences and ended up driving them away. Just like that guy she’d had a crush on who had been a member of the literature club in High school. Natsuki had really liked him too, but ultimately he had chosen Monika. At the time Natsuki had always suspected that Monika had deliberately manipulated events in the club so that she would get to spend the most time with him. Any time that she did get to spend with him she was always on the defensive. She was so used to being teased because of her petite stature and love of manga, why should he be any different to those others? But she never gave him the chance to prove otherwise.

Now she had been defensive all over again with Mr Wednesday. Don’t let them get too close then you can’t get hurt right?

Wrong.

She hoped that when Wednesday came back around again that she would have the chance to try and make things up with him. It was time to swallow her pride and take a chance.

Wednesday finally came… and went. Mr Wednesday was a no show.

Natsuki spent the whole of that day waiting for him to come in. Every time the door opened she would look up to see if it was him, a hopeful smile upon her cute face, but every time that smile would be dashed from her lips.

By the time that closing time came about even her practiced ‘customer’ smile was broken and all she could feel was the gaping vacuum in her chest where her heart used to be.

After she said goodbye to Fumiko and locked the café door she managed to make it behind the counter before she collapsed to the floor wracked with sobs.

That night she cried herself to sleep.

 

Over the next couple of weeks Natsuki tried to lose herself in her work. Try as she might, however, she found it hard to raise even a fake smile for her customers anymore and she was quick to snap at the slightest thing. If it were not for the ray of sunshine that was Fumiko she may have lost customers altogether, but thankfully her assistant brought in just enough of her own cheer to make up for what was lacking in Natsuki’s.

It came to a point where Fumiko had to do all of the customer facing work whilst Natsuki remained in the kitchen area baking and making the drinks.

One day Natsuki’s old friends from High school, Sayori and Yuri, came in to visit and check out her café.

Seeing them again made her smile for the first time since that terrible Wednesday, even if it was just a little. Apparently the two of them were dating now, which came as a big surprise to Natsuki, but they both seemed so happy together that it was difficult to deny that they made a perfect couple.

Then the thought of them being happy together made her think how she would never see Mr Wednesday again and she’d had to excuse herself to prevent them from seeing her breakdown in front of them.

 

On the third week after that horrible day Wednesday returned.


	5. Reconciliation?

Natsuki was in the middle of preparing Mr Teshima’s order when she heard an excited squeal of “Oh my God, he’s here!” from Fumiko behind her.

She turned around with a roll of her eyes to see what all of the excitement was about and there he was just standing there in the middle of the café… Mr Wednesday. He was stood there looking as adorable as he always did with his sad brown eyes and spiky black hair that made him look like Rin from _Blue Exorcist_ , and he was looking right at her.

The first thing that she did was grab his book from under the counter. She had kept it there all these weeks in the hopes that this day would come and she could finally give it back to him.

Natsuki stepped out from behind the counter and walked right up to him until she was standing just inches in front of him (Jesus, he was so tall; her nose came up to the bottom of his chest and she had to look up if she wanted to see into his eyes). Just as they had been on that awful day that she had last seen him, all eyes in the café were on the two of them. Silence reigned supreme.

It was Natsuki that broke it.

“Here is your precious book, you dummy!” she said, and she pushed it into his hands. “You left it behind the last time you were here.”

If Mr Wednesday had been planning to say anything, it seemed to have left him at that moment. A look of bemused puzzlement furrowed his handsome features and he looked down at the book in his hands.

“This isn’t the same book.” He frowned, “This one looks like new and there’s no coffee stains.”

“Open it.” Natsuki said simply and her lips twitched into the faintest of smiles.

Mr Wednesday did as he was told… there in the front of the book was his mother’s message to him, unsullied and unstained… in fact as he flicked through the other pages he found that the coffee stains had been banished entirely and a huge grin broke out onto his face.

“How is this possible?” he exclaimed in delight.

“It’s amazing what you can find out on Google these days… apparently white vinegar and water is great for getting stains out of book pages.” Natsuki smirked happier than she had been in weeks to finally see his reaction, and to see _him_ again.

“Thank you.” He smiled down at her. “I came back here to apologise to you for my behaviour, and because I’ve missed seeing you. Coming in here every Wednesday since your little café opened has been the highlight of my week for a while now. I was upset when you ruined my book, but all the time I stayed away I couldn’t stop thinking about you… I had to come back and do whatever was necessary to make sure I’d get to see you again.”

“I’ve missed you too, dummy!” Natsuki replied, and was surprised to feel tears in her eyes, happy ones this time, “Seeing you come in every Wednesday has been the highlight of my weeks too. These last few weeks have been hell for me!”

“I’m back now.” He assured her, brushing her tears away with one finger, he tilted her head up and leaned in closer to kiss her softly on the lips.

All at once there was an eruption of clapping and cheering from everyone in the café.

Natsuki and Mr Wednesday broke their kiss and turned to face their audience, hand in hand and with visible blushes, and they took a bow.

“You know, I’ve been calling you Mr Wednesday.” She confessed to him as they absorbed further applause from the onlookers.

“Well from now on you can call me Mahiro.” He smiled back at her, then he pulled her to him and kissed her again to the delight of everybody present.

 

**The End**


End file.
